Method of making building products and the like



p 1957 I T. R. PATTERSON 3,340,1 18

METHOD OF MAKING BUILDING PRODUCTS AND THE LIKE Filed June 1, 1965 3 Sheets-Shem l FIETl IN VEN TOR.

Sept. 5, 1967 T pi cwgfisom METHOD OF MAKING BUILDING PRODUCTS AND THE LIKE Filed June 1, 1965 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTQQ Sept. 5, 1967 T R, PATTERSON Sfifiiifi METHOD OF MAKING BUILDING PRODUCTS AND THE LIKE Filed June 1, 1965 3 Sheets-Shea? 3 PM}. Y

INVENTUR 175m f P 22217 1 United States Patent 3,340,118 METHOD OF MAKING BUILDING PRODUCTS AND THE LIKE Thomas R. Patterson, 990 E. Rainbow Drive, Memphis, Tenn. 38107 Filed June 1, 1965, Ser. No. 460,305 8 Claims. (Cl. 156-200) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE An apparatus for passing an upper and a lower spaced felt sheet through a series of saturant irnmersions, and after that to devices for further processing and/ or to a device for adhesively applying said saturated felt sheets to respective upper and lower surfaces of traveling preformed sheet material.

This invention relates to the manufacture of prepared building products suitable for roofing and other purposes and with the provision of apparatus by which building products can be produced at a high rate of output. It is more particularly concerned, however, with an improved product to be used in place of ordinary prepared roofings as heretofore constructed, but the utility of the improved product is by no means limited to this particular use, and it is of wide application for construction purposes.

The improved building product referred to comprises a core of relatively stifi preformed fiber board such as brand names Celotex, Insulite, Homasote, Fiberglas, Styrofoam and all other types of fiber boards too numerous to mention, herein. This core is encased within sheets of saturated felt, preferably asphalt saturated, and if it is to be used as a shingle for roofing preferably has notches out along one of its end edges, which end is preferably covered by saturated felt. After the notches are cut, the then notched saturated felt covered fiber board is cut into suitable lengths and such parts of the fiber board core as are exposed are asphalt saturant pretreated and the units are then coated with a sealing layer of preferably a high melting point asphalt and then a wear surface may be applied on such parts of the element as may be desired. The improved building products may be made in any desired shape, but is particularly useful for roofing purposes in the form of strip shingles.

The present invention is directed to the provision of apparatus by which the above described improved product and other building materials suitable for roofing and the like may be rapidly and economically produced.

For a better understanding of the invention, reference will be made to the accompanying drawings, in which,

FIG. 1 is a view in side elevation illustrating saturating apparatus, with parts omitted,

FIG. 2 is a view in side elevation, diagrammatic in character, showing equipment for making building materials and the like,

FIG. 3 is a view of an enlarged portion of the apparatus illustrated in FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is an end 'view illustrating saturated felt sheets having been applied to both upper and lower face surfaces and around the outer edges of two rows of preformed fiber board blanks.

FIG. 5 is an end view similar to that shown in FIG. 4 except that the saturated felt sheets are shown as having been applied to both upper and lower face surfaces and around the outer edges of one row of preformed fiber board blanks,

FIG. 6 is a plan view of a strip shingle made on the apparatus of my invention,

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic top plan view in section and partially broken away illustrating a modified form for cross cutting units into suitable lengths.

Referring to the drawings-the details of the drive have been purposely omitted to avoid complication of the apparatus more pertinent to the invention.

In FIG. 1 of the apparatus lower spaced felt sheet 10 from roll 10', to be saturated, is shown as arranged at one end of the apparatus saturating machine and as it is unwound the felt sheet 10 passes over feed roll 12, then under and around feed roll 13, then over the top of feed roll 14, then over a guide roll 15, then down and under and around a looper roll 16, then up and over a looper roll 17, then down and underand around looper roll 18, then up and over looper roll 19 and so on throughout the saturating process for as many loops and submersions into the saturating tank as what may be considered necessary to attain complete saturation of lower spaced felt sheet 10. The above outlined procedure also applies to saturating upper spaced felt sheet 11 and from roll 11 which is also arranged at one end of the saturating machine and as it is unwound the felt sheet 11 passes over the feed roll 20, then under and around feed roll 21, then over the top of feed roll 22, then over a guide roll 23, then down and under and around a looper roll 24, then up and over a looper roll 25, then down and under and around looper roll 26 and so on throughout the saturating process for as many loops and submersions into the saturating tank as What is necessary to attain complete saturation of upper spaced felt sheet 11.

As lower spaced felt sheet 10 travels downwardly and under and around lower looper rolls 16, 18 and the like, also upper spaced felt sheet 11 travels downwardly and under and around lower looper rolls 24, 26 and the like, said spaced felt sheets pass directly into a saturating bath in which both faces of the felt are covered with saturant. In the illustrative embodiment of the saturating machine in FIG. 1, the saturating tank 28 and the gate mechanism employed therein, may be substantially that of the prior art, the tank shown being merely illustrative and it being understood that a tank with any desired number of gates may be employed.

From the saturating tank 28 the lower spaced felt sheet 10 in FIG. 1 is shown as passing over guide and feed roll 29, then under and around feed roll 30, then up and over feed roll 31, then between a pair of squeeze and feed rolls 32, then drops into a loop for slack, then up and over an idler 33, then between a pair of feed rolls 34, then to a roll Winding device 35 and the upper spaced felt sheet 11 is shown as passing over guide and feed roll 36, then under and around feed roll 37, then up and over feed roll 38, then between a pair of squeeze and feed rolls 39, then drops into a loop for slack, then up and over an idler 40, then between coating rollers 41 and 43. The coating tank 42 contains a high melting point asphalt, as is the material discharged from nozzle 44 over the top surface of felt sheet 11 and any surplus material from nozzle 44 flows over into coating tank 42. It is to be understood, however, that in passing from the saturating tank 28 the lower spaced felt sheet may, if desired, be directed to the coating device in which case the upper spaced felt sheet is directed to the roll winding device 35 or, if desired, combined lower and upper spaced felt sheets 10 and 11 can be directed to pass through the same roll winding device or each to separate roll winding devices.

The saturated felt sheet in passing through coating rolls 41 and 43 is being asphalt coated, therefore, the saturant in tank 28 must of necessity be an asphalt saturant. After being coated at rolls 41 and 43 the sheet is either dusted on all surfaces with a talc, mica or the like and wrapped as smooth roll roofing, or the upper surface is topped with colorful slate granules then wrapped as slate roll roofing, or the slate surfaced material is cut into shingles and bundled.

It is to be understood, that this invention is not to be restricted to the precise arrangement of large and small rolls for spacing and looping the felt sheets and 11 through the saturating process as shown in FIG. 1. Spacing felt sheets 10 and 11 throughout the saturating process can also be handled by substituting pairs of smaller rolls for each large roll shown or, if desired, all looper rolls may he of the same diameter, but spaced farther apart than as shown for the large and smallrolls in FIG. 1. It is further to be understood, that the invention is not to be restricted to the precise saturation process described herein and illustrated in FIG. 1 There are several different types of saturating processes employed in the manufacture of roofing materials and the means described and shown, in this invention, of continuously passing a lower and an upper spaced felt sheet through a series of saturant immersions is novel and as such may be applied to a good many of the felt saturating processes in present use.

Preferably, saturated felt sheet 10 on leaving the saturant tank 28 between the pair of squeeze and feed rolls 32, drops into a loop for slack, then passes over a guide roll 45 in FIG. 2, then between a pair of feed rolls 46, then through a continuous slitter device 47 which is adapted to cut sheets of moving material into suitable widths, then between a pair of feed rolls 48, then drops into another loop for slack, then up and over a guide roll 49, then over a press roll 50 whereupon the slitted and saturated felt sheet 10 is adhesively applied to the lower face surface of simultaneously traveling rows of preformed sheet material, and preferably, saturatedfe'lt sheet 11 on leaving the saturant tank 28 between the pair of squeeze and feed rolls 39. of FIG. 1, passes over a g-uideroll 51 in FIG. 2, then drops into a loop for slack, then up and between a pair of feed rolls 52, then through a continuous slitter device 53 which functions in precisely the same manner as that described for slitter device 47, then between a pair of feed rolls 54, then drops into another loop for slack, then up'and over an idler roll 55, then down and between press and guide rolls 56, then over the coating roll 57 in the tank 58, the tank 58 containing an adhesive material, preferably a high melting point hot asphalt, then under a press roll 59 whereupon the slitted saturated felt sheet 11 is adhesively applied to the upper face surface of said simultaneously traveling rows of preformed sheet material.

Preferably, two rows of identical width sheets of a relatively stiff preformed fiber board 60 and 60A in FIG. 4 are stacked at 61 in FIG. 2, on a take off conveyor which is so positioned below the stacks that it will remove the bottom-most two sheets of fiber board blanks from the stacks. The conveyor (not shown) comprises chains provided with flights or stops 62 which rapidly remove the bottom two sheets 60' and 60A from the stacks which are next passed over the coating roller 63 in the tank 64, the tank 64 containing an adhesive material, preferably, a high melting point hot asphalt, then between press and feed rolls 50 and 6S whereupon the slitted and saturated felt sheets 10 and 10A in FIG. 4 are adhesively applied to the lower face surface, or and to the outer side edges of fiber board sheets 60 and 60A by the roller 67 in FIG. 3 which acts on extending edges of the felt sheets 10 and 10A turning same in, in the manner illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4. The saturated felt covered fiber board sheets 60 and 60A next pass between press and feed rolls 59 and 68 whereupon the adhesive coated slitted and saturated felt sheets 11 and 11A in FIG. 4- are adhesively applied to the upper face surface or and to the outer side edges of fiber board sheets 60 and 60A by the roller 70 in FIG. 3 which acts on extending edges of the felt sheets 11 and 11A turning same in, in the manner illustrated in FIGS. 3 and r 4. It is to be understood, that adhesive coating for applying the saturated felt sheets to surfaces of the intervening sheet of traveling material, may be applied to either or both saturated felt sheets or to either or both face surfaces of the intervening sheet or sheets of material instead of precisely as described and shown, herein.

Although, the spaced saturated felt sheets 10 and 11 are described as being cut in width at slitter devices 47 and 53 said slitter devices, if desired, may be disengaged or omitted in which case one row of intervening traveling preformed sheet material is covered by the saturated felt sheets 10 and 11 as shown in FIG. 5. The saturated felt covered traveling preformed sheet material then either passes directly to transverse slitter device 73 for cross cutting in the desired lengths or is first slit in width by the continuous slitter device 72, then passes to the transverse slitter 73 for cross cutting in the desired lengths.

In the event that strip shingles are to be made the saturated felt covered fiber board 60 and 60A as shown in FIG. 4 or 71 as shown in FIG. 5 pass through a shingle notching device which comprises a pair of feed rolls 74, anvil roll 75, cutter roll 76 and another pair of feed rolls 77 which are operated at the proper speed so as to produce notches 78 shown in FIG. 6 in the outer edges of the saturated felt covered fiber board. It. is to be understood, that a press bed or some other form of shingle notching device may be employed, if desired, to produce the cut-out notches 78. Beyond the notching device is the continuous slitter device 72 as above described and which functions to slit the width of the one row of traveling notched saturated felt covered fiber board 71. Beyond that is the transverse slitter device 73 which cuts the notched saturated felt covered fiber board into selected lengths. The notched saturated felt covered fiber board strip shingle units may at this point he set aside for further processing at a later date or passed through a pair of feed rolls 80, then preferably, though not essentially, into a saturating enclosure 81 whereupon exposed cut edge portions of the strip shingle are asphalt saturant pre-treated. Beyond the saturating enclosure the strip shingle units pass through squeezerolls 82, then between coating rolls 83 and 84, preferably a high melting point hot asphalt and this material is discharged upon the upper surface of the strip shingle units by means of a nozzle 85 and the excess runs over into the tank 86, the lower roller 83 turning in the material in the tank provides a means for applying the coating to the lower surface of the strip shingle units and the upper roller 84 serving to level and proportion the amount of coating on the upper surface of the shingles. Beyond the coating roller 83 is another device generally designated 100 which may apply talc, mica or the like to the lowersurface of the coated strip shingle units. Beyond the device 100 is'means for applying the granular substance or facing material such as slate or the like. This latter device is illustrated in conventional form as consisting of upper and lower rolls 87 and 88, with a hopper 89 by which the granular substance is distributed on the material and then to be embeddedby the action of the rolls 87 and 88. Beyond the rolls 87 and 88 the shingle units pass under a suction chamber 90 which acts to remove excess granular material from the surface of the shingles before packaging of the finished product.

Cutting the saturated felt covered sheet material into I suitable lengths solely with the transverse slitter device 73in FIG. 2 couldinvolve a production lag, particularly if the units are short in lengthsuch as 3' and under. By making the cuts indicated at 92 with the transverse slitter device 73 as shown in FIG. 7, then after the cuts indicated at 92 are made the cut to length units 93 and 93A are received upon the rollers 94 which are turned by suitable power (not shown) and which deliver said units 93 and 93A onto the sprocket chains or cross conveyor indicated at 95 which chains are provided with the dogs 96 adapted to catch the edges 97 of the units 93 and to move the units 93 and 93A in a direction perpendicular to the original line of travel, all as indicated by the arrow 98 in FIG. 7, then slitting units 93 and 93A as indicated at 99 with the continuous slitting mechanism indicated at 72A in FIG. 7 which slit divides the length of the units cut by the transverse slitter device 73 into two parts thereby doubling the cutting footage of that shown for the transverse slitter device 73 in FIG. 2. It will be obvious that in adding more slitter blades to the shaft of the continuous slitter mechanism 72A in FIG. 7 even fewer cuts would be made by the transverse slitter device 73 which would further speed up production at such point.

Upon leaving the continuous slitting device 72A in FIG. 7 the notched or otherwise saturated felt covered units may as in FIG. 2 pass through the pair of feed rolls 80, then the saturating enclosure 81, then between the squeeze rolls 82, then between the coating rolls 83 and 84 and so on through to completion of the finished product as shown in FIG. 2, or be set aside for packaging or for further processing at a later date It will be apparent from the foregoing that the new process and apparatus hereinabove described permits the production of building material for roofing and the like at a rapid rate and at a low cost because the process is a continuous one and need not be interrupted for any considerable periods of time. When the rolls of the felt are exhausted others will be joined to the ends of same, also the intervening sheet or sheets of material being constantly fed into the apparatus makes the operation continuous. As herein illustrated the product is shown as being a square butt pattern strip shingle, but it may be produced in a variety of strip shingle forms or in the shape of flat rectangular sheets of different sizes for siding and the like.

I claim:

1. The method of making building products and the like which consists of continuously passing a lower and an upper spaced felt sheet through a series of saturant immersions, then adhesively applying said spaced saturated felt sheets to respective lower and upper surfaces of a row of traveling preformed sheet material, and then cutting the said saturated felt covered sheet material into selected lengths.

2. The method of making building products and the like as set forth in claim 1 which consists of adhesively applying extending longitudinal edges of said upper and lower spaced saturated felt sheets to outer side edges of said saturated felt covered preformed sheet material.

3. The method of making building products and the like which consists of continuously passing a lower and an upper spaced felt sheet through a series of saturant immersions, then adhesively applying said spaced saturated felt sheets to respective lower and upper surfaces of a row of traveling preformed sheet material, then longitudinally slitting the width of said saturated felt covered sheet material and then cutting the said saturated felt covered sheet material into selected lengths.

4. The method of making building products and the like as set forth in claim 3 which consists of adhesively applying extending longitudinal edges of said upper and lower spaced saturated felt sheets to outer side edges of said saturated felt covered preformed sheet material.

5. The method of making building products and the like which consists of continuously passing a lower and an upper spaced felt sheet through a series of saturant immersions, then adhesively applying said spaced saturated felt sheets to respective lower and upper surfaces of a row of traveling preformed fiber board, then cutting notches in the outer edges of said saturated felt covered fiber board, then longitudinally slitting the width of said notched saturated felt covered fiber board, and then cutting the said notched saturated felt covered fiber board into selected lengths.

6. The method of making building products and the like as set forth in claim 5 which consists of adhesively applying extending longitudinal edges of said upper and lower spaced saturated felt sheets to outer side edges of said saturated felt covered preformed fiber board.

7. The method of making building products and the like which consists of continuously passing a lower and an upper spaced felt sheet through a series of saturant immersions, then longitudinally slitting the width of each of said spaced saturated felt sheets, then adhesively applying said spaced saturated and slitted felt sheets to respective lower and upper surfaces of two rows of traveling preformed fiber board, then cutting notches in the outer edges of said saturated felt covered fiber board, and then cutting the said notched saturated felt covered fiber board into selected lengths.

8. The method of making building products and the e as set forth in claim 7 which consists of adhesively applying extending longitudinal edges of said upper and lower spaced saturated felt sheets to outer side edges of said saturated felt covered preformed fiber board.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Slayter et al 156560 X EARL M. BERGERT, Primary Examiner. T. R. SAVOIE, Assistant Examiner. 

1. THE METHOD OF MAKING BUILDING PRODUCTS AND THE LIKE WHICH CONSISTS OF CONTINUOUSLY PASSING A LOWER AND AN UPPER SPACED FELT SHEET THROUGH A SERIES OF SATURANT IMMERSIONS, THEN ADHESIVELY APPLYING SAID SPACED SATURATED FELT SHEETS TO RESPECTIVE LOWER AND UPPER SURFACES OF A ROW OF TRAVELING PREFORMED SHEET MATERIAL, AND THEN CUTTING THE SAID SATURATED FELT COVERED SHEET MATERIAL INTO SELECTED LENGTHS.
 2. THE METHOD OF MAKING BUILDING PRODUCTS AND THE LIKE AS SET FORTH IN CLAIM 1 WHICH CONSISTS OF ADHESIVELY APPLYING EXTENDING LONGITUDINAL EDGES OF SAID UPPER AND LOWER SPACED SATURATED FELT SHEETS TO OUTER SIDE EDGES OF SAID SATURATED FELT COVERED PREFORMED SHEET MATERIAL. 